Detour (1945)

The final installment of my film noir triple feature at the Roxie, Detour, is actually one of my favorite films. Certainly, it’s one of my favorite noir films, so lean and ruthless, so deceptively simple, so razor-sharp tight. Ann Savage is amazing as the femme fatale par excellence, swerving between rage and kittenish vulnerability, manipulative to a fault, vicious yet pathetic. I’m more struck by her performance every time I see it, and I’d never seen it on the big screen before.

Of the three films that I saw as part of the “I Wake up Dreaming” noir festival, only The Pretender (1947) was shown on film. So that was a little disappointing. But still, it was cool to see it big and bold, with a crowd.